Sunday, July 20, 2008

Exhaust mod.

While I like a quiet bike, I thought the exhaust was a little restrictive on my bike. Maybe it was my imagination but I thought I could tell the header pipe was not flowing as well as it should.





















With the muffler only having a 11/16" outlet, I decided to drill some holes to open it up. I selected a 7/32" bit and drilled one hole. I figured the small hole could easily be welded closed if I didn't like the effect.


After drilling one hole (I left the bike running to hear the noise difference) and listening to only a slight increase in the noise level even at higher rpm's, I drilled a second hole. Now the exhaust only has a slight noise increase and I stopped the drilling. If I were to do it again, I think I would put one larger hole instead of the two.


The engine appears to breathe a little better but it may just be wishful thinking. I can no longer hear the bottleneck in the header pipe and the bike seems to perform better above 5,000 rpm's.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Shifting gears

For quality shifting make sure the engine has enough oil (remember engine oil is also the transmission oil) and the clutch is properly adjusted (I like about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of free play at the outer end of the clutch handle).

Most of shifting problems occur when downshifting. When up-shifting we use the transmission as it was designed. Pull clutch, shift gear, release clutch . Our hand is off the clutch and our foot releases contact with the shifter and the gears mesh.

When down-shifting we get lazy and pull the clutch and try to downshift several gears and sometimes the transmission just doesn't feel right and even tries to hang in gear.

When down-shifting, pull clutch, "burp" the throttle quickly to raise the rpm's as you down-shift one gear, make sure your foot is then not holding any pressure on the shifter after the shift and release the clutch just enough to feel the motor pull against the transmission. Then repeat as you down-shift another gear.

If you have to stop and need to shift down several gears while standing still just release the clutch enough to mesh the gears but not stall the engine.

The tolerances are very tight on these little bikes and the slightest pressure can keep parts from preforming as they should.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Day Trip

The only riding I have done is commuting to work. Today a have an errand to run that required a small "road trip", so naturally I took the bike.

With a fresh oil change (1500km), I gassed it up 1586km, it held 2.075 gal. for 152.23miles (245km)= 73.36mpg.

My day-trip would cover 166.52 miles(268km). I took small paved state highways and cruised about 45-50mph and had an absolute blast. The bike performed flawlessly and my butt held out pretty well. I rode 130km before I took a break.

I ran my errand, had lunch and stopped twice to visit with friends. I took all day to accomplish the trip but could not have had a more enjoyable day roaming the back roads of Arkansas.

I gassed up a little early on the tank because I wasn't sure of the next station. It held 1.617gal for 126.13 miles for an average of 78mpg.

Rubbermaid trunk

I always try to give credit where credit is due. Katoranger from ChinaRiders was the first person that I saw using the Rubbermaid ActionPacker for a trunk.

I really like the utilitarian look as I think a sculptured motorcycle trunk looks out of place on a enduro bike.
























This is my version of the Wal-Mart trunk.












I mounted it just behind the upright bar on the luggage rack.











I considered cutting off the upright so I could move the ActionPacker foward to sit on the luggage rack instead of hanging off the back. Two problems with that would be,
1. the Action Packer might have to be removed to get the seat off the bike.
2. I think the ActionPacker would be too far forward and I would hit it with my foot when I throw my leg over the bike.
I used U-bolts to mount the trunk but I need to mount a plate under it as about half of it is not supported by the rack.